


Gently, he said.

by dragonism



Series: Brotzly Ficlets [3]
Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, The one time the universe let everythinf be perfect, well sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 00:51:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12222405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonism/pseuds/dragonism
Summary: Dirk and Todd have been together for almost two years, and our loveable detective has decided it’s time to take the next step in their relationship- though popping the question was never going to be simple when it came to Dirk Gently.





	Gently, he said.

Nobody ever expected Dirk’s proposal would be conventional. In honesty, nobody ever expected it; period. However after Farah and Todd came to rescue him from Black Wing, it took only a two months for Todd and Dirk to come to their senses about their feelings for one another.

That was almost two years ago.

Nowadays, both men had matured rather gracefully in each other’s company.

After six months of being a pair, Amanda finally returned to visit, having travelled what seemed to be half of America with the Rowdy Three. Todd was glad to see her happy, and Amanda was glad to see him happy. They’d gone out for dinner that night under Farah’s insistence, and the tales were plentiful though never ordinary.

They’d moved out of the Ridgely after eight months, and moved together into a small apartment that lay above a store. A store more famously known nowadays as ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’.

Business at first was, expectedly, somewhat slow. But after a two months they began to encounter a steady stream of cases, it was something to keep them busy and most certainly something to pay the rent. Dirk finally had his detective agency, and he was elated; Todd on the other hand, was merely happy in the knowledge that those around him were happy.

Their eleventh month was spent overseas, a trip to Paris that Dirk insisted was for a case, despite the fact that they spent most of the two weeks there sight seeing and enjoying the luxuries of France. (Though admittedly, Dirk did find the stolen jewels he had rambled about. However it was to even his own surprise.)

One year. A year is a landmark for anybody, but especially for Dirk and Todd. Their relationship was far from the norm, far from anything any onlooker would consider to be a years worth of adoration for each other. They had their moments, that was certain. They teased, argued, cried; but they got through everything and they got through it together (and sometimes with Farah’s help).

After that first year, the second seemed to fly by, packed with excitement and fear and everything in between. Brimming with cases and stories, tales of tragedy and the paranormal. Full of love and longing and strange events nobody could, or ever would, explain.

That year, in it’s near completion, brings us here: the morning of November Fifteenth.

Todd awoke to find the bed empty aside from his own figure, a gap unfilled, but the bedsheets still warm beneath his touch. He wasn’t used to Dirk waking up before him, and he immediately assumed something must be wrong. That was, until, the smell of cooked eggs wafted through their apartment- and his ears tuned into the soft hums of a low voice.

Rolling out of the bed, he wandered to the closet and took out the first hoodie he saw, pulling it on against the cold as he walked out into the open plan area of their apartment and looked towards the kitchen. The sight he saw was enough to make him smile immediately. There stood Dirk- already fully dressed, with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and two plates with fresh omelettes to the side of him.

The Brotzman wandered over with a soft hum, wrapping his arms around Dirk’s middle in his unexpected habit to be quite extremely affectionate. He had to stand on his tiptoes to actually lean his chin on Dirk’s shoulder, but that was something that after this amount of time he was simply used to, pressing a kiss to the back of his partner’s neck and uttering a gentle, “Morning.”

“Ah, Todd, you’re awake!” Dirk placed a final touch of some sort of seasoning onto one of the omelettes before turning in his boyfriend’s arms, placing his own hands on Todd’s waist and leaning down to kiss him. The kiss was more lingering than their normal morning ones, and it left the shorter of the pair wondering what had Dirk in such an incredible mood.

“I am.” He nodded a little to the side of them, eying up the food, “And I see you made breakfast.”

“I did!” Dirk chirped, a cheerful and energetic tone to his voice, “I thought it might be nice to have breakfast together before we go out on our case.”

Todd raised an eyebrow, apparently unaware that they even had a new case. “Our case?”

“Oh!” The taller man looked as though he was incredibly surprised that Todd didn’t know of the case, “Yes. A new case has come up, and we start today. I thought I told you already. Hmph, sorry love.”

Replying with a shake of his head, the shorter man stretched to kiss the tip of Dirk’s nose before slipping from his grasp and talking as he collected cutlery, “It’s fine, you don’t have to apologise, it’s not like I don’t enjoy cases.” He turned on his heel, now holding a small bundle of knives and forks for the pair of them, and gave a small chuckle. “Now, how about those omelettes? I’m starved.”

“Starved is an over exaggeration, you ate an entire pizza to yourself last night.” Dirk rolled his eyes, grabbing their plates and moving them to the small breakfast bar before sitting down and waiting for Todd to take the seat across from him.

The pair ate for a moment in a comfortable silence, so at ease in each other’s company that conversation simply wasn’t a necessity. Though of course, it arose anyway.

“So this case, what’s it about?”

Dirk looked up from his food with a hum, and an enthusiastic smile, “That’s the mystery: I’m not exactly sure yet. Though- I do know that you once again seem to play a very important role.”

This was a lie. In fact it was safe to reveal by this point that the entire case was a lie. The reason Farah hadn’t briefed them, and the reason Todd thought he hadn’t been told, is because there was no case to tell anybody about. The only truth in Dirk’s words was that Todd would indeed play a very important role in the day’s events, because you see the actual case at hand was the case of Dirk Gently finally proposing to Todd Brotzman.

“Oh?” Todd gave a small scrunch of his nose as he frowned, clearly remembering the last time he had an important role in a case, though none the less he remained interested- much to Dirk’s relief. “So where do we start?”

Unsurprisingly, Dirk’s plan to propose wasn’t a simple dinner, but more of an elaborate scheme, starting at “The Ridgely.” He nodded decisively, “Looks like we’ll be making a stop at your old apartment.”

He planned to take Todd on a trip down memory lane, including every place they had been together back when they first met. Starting at his apartment, and ending at the diner they had been at when they’d finally established the Detective Agency. It had taken weeks to plan, with Farah and Amanda’s help, Dirk was extremely grateful for the girls- especially Amanda, considering that her and Todd were still sometimes a little distant.

“Is that place not occupied nowadays?” The shorter of the pair placed down his fork in finishing his breakfast, and raised an eyebrow at their first stop.

“That’s the interesting part: it isn’t.” This was yet another truth, under no explicable reasoning, nobody ever moved into the apartment Todd left behind. “And I intend to find out why.”

“Hm.”

And that remained all that was said for another short while, Dirk finishing his own breakfast after Todd got up to get changed. He felt his stomach turn as he realised this was finally falling into place; that his plan was finally rolling into action, and his fingers danced over the outline of a small ring in his pocket.

Skip ahead one thud from a bedroom (Todd refused to admit his skinny jeans had gotten a little too skinny, thus getting caught and falling); one terrible joke; and one swift half jog in order to flag down a bus, and the pair were finally in motion. The shorter of them had questioned why they didn’t just take their car, but Dirk had brushed off the question, stating it was necessary they take a bus. Which of course Todd believed.

The real reason for their impromptu bus ride was that Dirk had left their current car with Farah for the day- in exchange for a loaned blue sports car that sat right where it once did outside the Ridgely.

Upon arriving at the old building, it was time for the first step of the plan to be put in place. Dirk had to ensure Todd would see the writing on the wall inside his old sitting room, and that meant convincing him to climb through the window.

“It really is necessary.” He nodded decisively, holding back a smile at Todd’s unenthusiastic frown.

After a moment, the Brotzman sighed, “Fine. Just like old times I guess.” And with that he set about climbing the fire escape to reach the window, Todd in the lead and Dirk decidedly staying put on the ground.

“See anything?!”

“Writing! I think.” Todd leaned further through the window, balancing carefully so as not to fall, though wobbling precariously, “It’s pinned to the wall. I’m gonna go inside!”

“Careful!” Now that Dirk was out of Todd’s sight, he gave a grin to himself, before shaking it off and returning to his usual composure as his partner popped his head out of the window, waving a piece of card in his hand. “You got it!”

“Everything else seemed normal, even the 3 is still spray painted onto the wall. This was the only thing out of place.” He looked curiously down at the item in his hand as he finally reached the ground again, and hummed in thought, “It says ‘Will’, maybe it’s a name?”

“Oh! Maybe.” Dirk bounced a little, feigning his interest in the fake clue, and span a little on his heel. “Right. I have a hunch, and it’s... ah! Blue.”

Pointing a finger towards the car across the street, he grinned, and heard Todd utter a small “No way.” behind him.

“That’s- That’s exactly like the car you had when we first met. This is the universe telling us something right?!”

Admittedly, Dirk adored the moments when Todd gained a clear enthusiasm for their cases. The short bursts of rambles that streamed from the usually somewhat grumpy man’s thoughts. He nodded, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and dragging him over to the car, “Definitely.”

The next stop on their tour would have been Amanda’s house. However the woman no longer lived there due to her travels with the Rowdy 3, and so instead, the drive itself became a clue, when the car ‘mysteriously ran out of gas’ at the same petrol station they had visited last time.

At this pit stop, Dirk insisted they go into the small store to get some food, despite only having breakfast a mere hour or so before hand. This was yet another ruse, and the detective watched eagerly out of the window as Amanda and the Rowdy 3 spray painted a large “YOU” onto the bonnet of the blue car.

“You? Why would somebody write ‘you’ on our car?” Todd grumbled, looking somewhat annoyed- as expected- about the vandalism.

“Can’t you see Todd? Us breaking down here; us finding that car; the spray paint- it’s all connected! It’s the case!”

The Ex-Bell Hop seemed to just slightly ease at this, though still frowned at the spray paint through the window of the car as they drove, “So where to next? You seemed to have a clue before we had that accident.”

“I have a feeling the Ridgely plays more into this than I first expected. I was thinking somebody might be using Spring’s old maze to their advantage.”

“You mean we’re going to the death puzzle maze again?” Todd raised a brow, looking to Dirk as though expecting him to say he was joking, “We’re going to the death puzzle maze again. Suddenly this case is becoming less fun.”

“Oh, Todd, please.” Dirk rolled his eyes, “You know you love it. You always have loved the universes little plans. Why else would you still be here, hm?”

“I love _you_ more than I love almost getting killed, that’s why.” He rolled his own eyes but cracked a smile, and Dirk felt heat rise to his cheeks. A pink flush settling over them.

Arriving at the puzzle rooms, it wasn’t surprising to find most of the problems had been deactivated in their earlier run of the underground system. So it was fairly easy for them to make their way through. At the end however, the room was just slightly different, the screens displaying the same combination over and over: “1?”

“One question?” Todd furrowed his brows, “This person really is taking a spin on Spring’s case. They must know us.”

“If they are, then maybe there is another map.”

The shorter of the two perked up at this suggestion, clearly remembering what they needed to do to uncover such a map from those two years ago, and turning to face the wall behind them, where the crank remained firmly planted in the wall. Todd turned it with ease, and the screens behind him flickered to life, displaying not a map- but something close.

On the many television screens was repeated numbers- coordinates to a specific location.

“Oh! Coordinates!” Dirk clapped his hands together as he read the many screens with an eager eye, turning to Todd, “Maybe we should start writing these clues down. Phone notes?”

“Phone notes.” Todd fished for his phone in his pocket, his notes pages had become the pairs hub for noting down any clue they found on a case over the last couple of years, filled with the many solved and unsolved mysteries they embarked on. “Okay. So we have ‘Will’, ‘You’ and these coordinates. I guess that’s where we should go next?”

“Excellent assisting, Todd. You’re truly much better at this than you were on the Spring case.”

“In my defence I barely even knew you back then, and we had just walked through what was basically a death trap. I think I should get some slack here.”

“Yes yes, of course.” Dirk pressed a quick kiss to his companion’s forehead, leading them both out of the old trap rooms and into the daylight again, where they worked to find out where the coordinates lead.

Such coordinates, as it turned out, swerved them back to the store they had once argued outside- but the same store that Todd had finally come to his senses outside of. And now, the same store that had a giant poster in the window saying what somebody may interpret as a name- Marry K, with the rest of the surname too faded to make out, and a profession underneath stating she was a Medical Examiner.

This required little discussion, with Todd already convinced that Marry and Will must somehow be connected. He’d truly picked up on Dirk’s habits in their time together, little did he know just how truly connected the two words really were.

With the evening rolling in however, the pair decided to call it a day, and head off to grab dinner at the nearby diner before they made their journey home. It was only a short walk from the store, and in spite of the cold was an enjoyable stroll in the peace of each other’s company. At some point too, the pair’s fingers ended up interlaced, hands swinging gently between them.

They slid into a booth, sat across from each other, and swiftly ordered small meals and coffee, with the evening clearly not being the busiest time for the restaurant.

“Okay. So here is what we have now.”

 _Shit_. Todd had moved incredibly quickly back to the clues, pulling out his phone and a pen and reaching for a nearby napkin. Dirk had assumed he’d at least have their meal to calm the growing knot of nerves in the pit of his stomach, but that seemed not to be the truth.

“We should write them in order right? Maybe order has something to do with all this. And there has to be a question. One question.”

The anxious detective watched as Todd wrote down Will, and then You, followed by Marry M.E. His fingers fumbled over the cold circle of metal, and suddenly it was no longer in his pocket, but held out in front of him as he patiently (okay, impatiently) awaited Todd to piece together the sentence he had just unwittingly formed. Waiting for his boyfriend to raise his gaze.

“Will, you, marry, m-“ He trailed off, and Dirk could have sworn he felt his heart beat out of his chest. Or stop beating all together. “Dirk, this can’t be right. It says ‘Will you-“

“Marry me?” The detective’s voice finishing his sentence was enough for Todd to finally look up from his napkin, and finally take in the sight before him. “I know.”

“You-“ Todd cut himself off again, eyes flickering between Dirk and the ring as his once confused expression softened completely, and he said nothing but lunged over the table between them to cup Dirk’s cheeks between his hands and press a hard kiss to his lips, smiling into it. “You ass. You planned this whole thing.”

Dirk gave a bubbled laugh, a laugh of relief and happiness all at the same time, “With a little help.” He bit his lip as Todd sat back in his seat, “Well then, one question. One answer. Might I be Mr Brotzman?”

“No.” Dirk’s eyes widened and his heart skipped a beat, Todd- clearly noticing this, continued frantically, “I mean yes! God yes I’ll marry you. But no, you won’t be Brotzman.”

“Oh thank god.” Dirk groaned his words, allowing himself to relax and smiling at the answer, through he did furrow his brows for just a moment, “Though, why not? Oh! Would you prefer it double barrelled? Gently-Brotzman... Brotzman-Gently.”

“Actually, I’d just prefer Gently.” He spoke softly, gathering Dirk’s attention again. All of a sudden, his breath caught in his throat, and his full focus was on his now fiancé, “I prefer Todd Gently.”

“You... You do?” The detective was stunned. To anybody else the simplicity of a surname may seem like a ridiculous thing to get so incredibly emotional over. However this wasn’t just any surname- it was his surname. His chosen surname. And now, it would be Todd’s too. The man he loves more than anybody else in the world wants to take his name.

“Let’s save me saying ‘I do’ till the wedding, hm?” Todd shook his head with a small chuckle, and reached out to place his hand in Dirk’s, squeezing a little in reassurance of his decision.

With this, Dirk’s smile grew, and the tears that prickled his eyes threatened to spill over as he slid the ring he’d bought onto Todd’s finger. He squeezed the smaller man’s hand in return, and they stayed like that for longer than either was aware of. In fact they became so lost in the moment that it wasn’t until the waitress came over with their food, and gave a joyful, “Oh!! Congratulations!” to the pair,that they even remembered where they were.

And as though in sync, they both gave a cheerful, “Thank you.” in return.


End file.
